price paid for fun

I bruise somewhat easily being so fair but during the summer I seem to have bruises everywhere. I call them boating bruises. It seems the more time we spend on the boat the more bruises and scrapes I have. I don't think I am super clumsy but at the end of a boating weekend I can guarantee I will have picked up some lovely new shades of yellow, blue, and purple in a few spots.

Sam will take a look at an especially large bruise and ask what happened. Most of the time I have no idea how it happened and won't even know I did anything until I see the evidence in the form of another bruise. It would be nice to point out that this one happened while having to jump 10 feet to the dock or another happened when I went through the locks solo. A good story would be so much more interesting than a shrug.

One would think I would possibly get them in the same places but nope they can appear anywhere. Personally I blame it on being the deckhand. After all Skipper Sam doesn't accumulate them the same way I do. So it must be all the scrambling around on the deck pulling in bumpers and then putting them back out again. Not to mention all the lines or even trying to reach it all in the hatch after they are stored. I am doing all that manual labor while he directs from behind the wheel after attaching a single rope to the back cleat.

It is almost like someone can figure out how much time I have been spending on the boat just by looking at the bruises on my arms and legs. So now that warmer weather has arrived and most all our weekends will be spent on the boat be ready - my body will show the physical evidence of all the good times spent under way.

I guess I could try and prevent a few by having Sam have his had at being the deckhand but that would mean I would have to dock probably. Instead I will just go with the bruised look and know each one represents another good boating memory even if I don't know exactly which one. Guess I am a hard core sailor after all sacrificing my body and all just to be out on the boat.